Music for Philip of Spain

Music for Philip of Spain
Chapelle du Roi - Alistair Dixon
Signum 005

Contents:

  1. Gombert: Dicite in magni
  2. Infantas: Domine ostende
  3. Josquin des Pres: Nimphes nappès
  4. Richafort: Requiem - Introit
  5. Richafort: Requiem - Kyrie
  6. Richafort: Requiem - Gradual
  7. Guerrero: Gradual
  8. Guerrero: Tract
  9. Richafort: Requiem - Offertory
  10. Richafort: Requiem - Sanctus
  11. Lobo: Versa est in luctum
  12. Richafort: Requiem - Benedictus
  13. Richafort: Requiem - Agnus Dei
  14. Richafort: Requiem - Communion
  15. Dismissal
  16. Lobo: Libera me

Performers: Elizabeth Franklin-Kitchen, Sally Dunkley, Clare Dawson, Sarah Blood, Ian Aitkinhead, Stephen Taylor, David Clegg, Benjamin Rayfield, Nicholas Todd, Edward Gardner, Matthew Beale, Eamonn Dougan, Adam Green, Francis Brett, Nigel Brooks, Giles Underwood

Playing time: 78'41

Recording date: May 1998

The present program offers a guess at some of the music for the Royal Exequies of Philip II on October 18th, 1598. The Missa pro defunctis of Jean Richafort (c.1480-c.1547) matches a description in a surviving service order, which calls for 'the Mass of the dead...of Circumdederunt for six voices.' The Requiem employs a canon throughout with the Circumdederunt chant (a device of Josquin), and quotes as well from Josquin's chansons Nimphes nappés and Faulte d'argente (in the latter case borrowing the text "C'est douleur non pareille" as well as the melody!); these factors seem to indicate that the mass is a tribute to Josquin. Since Richafort's Requiem does not conform exactly to late 16th-century liturgical usage, the service order also mentions that a Tract and Gradual by Guerrero are to be sung (on the present recording, these are taken from his second Requiem setting, published in 1582).

Some other recordings dedicated to Philip II:

Morales: Requiem / Music for Philip II
Gabrieli Consort - Paul McCreesh
Archiv 457 597
Mortuus est Philippus Rex
Music for the life and death of the Spanish King
Cotes / Escobedo / Las Infantas / Lobo / Vivanco
Westminster Cathedral Choir - James O'Donnell
Hyperion 67046
Music for Philip of Spain and his four wives
Charivari agréable / Nicki Kennedy / Rodrigo del Pozo
Signum 006

Other recordings of the Requiem:

Richafort: Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez
Huelgas Ensemble - Paul van Nevel
Harmonia Mundi 901730
Richafort: Requiem
Cinquecento
Hyperion 67959
Requiem — Tributes to Josquin Desprez
The King's Singers
Signum 326

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Ted Dumitrescu